ElectricMotorcycleForum.com

The saga is over.
Energica did their best to try an figure out why the Ego was stalling but after the second bike stalled in the same situation they decided to refund my money. They did this very promptly and without any protestations.

I'm a mechanical engineer, so electric motors are not my forte. But I've educated myself on the permanent magnet AC motor (PMAC) and I think I know basically what is happening. The engine shuts off sometimes when trying to accelerate between 70 and 80 mph which is around 4700 rpm, which is the end of the max constant torque portion of the torque curve (see graph). At just the right time, I twist the throttle, and it stalls. Full up with gear, I weigh 312 lb (think viking not sumo), so I ask for more voltage momentarily than most riders. The bike tries to protect itself from an overvoltage before the field weakening takes effect. How do I know it's an overvoltage? The stalling has only happened when the bike is 80% or more charged. So the stalling only happens when there is enough voltage to allow it to happen. The battery voltage decreases as the battery charge is depleted. Maybe an electrical engineer on the forum with deeper understanding can propose a better explanation.

I believe that Energica is a quality outfit that will eventually figure out why this stalling occurs. They say it only occurs with bike's I've ridden which is why I mention the only thing I can think of that differentiates me from most riders is my weight. The fact that I rode the bikes every day in SoCal freeway HOV lanes at around 70 to 80 mph, fully charged every morning, gave my bike more exposure to the regime where the stalling can happen.

Quote from: stephen6 on October 07, 2019, 09:34:47 AM

I have to return this one and get my money back.

Best regards,
Steve

Have you ridden the SS9?  If so, how did you find it to compare to the Ego? 

I am curious if you would consider a different model if other Energica models have no trace of this problem, or does this problem make you want to give up with Energica?

-Don-  Reno, NV

Hi Don,
I've ridden full fairing sports bike for 30 years now. It's really what I like.
I would buy the Lightning 218 if it had all the Energica electronics. But it doesn't have ABS or traction control. And as far as I can tell, they advertise it but they haven't sold any yet.
My crash rate of 2 to three street crashes a year plummeted to 1 every 4 years since I got my first ABS/TC bike a 2012 Ninja ZX 10R. I will always have ABS and TC and any other thing they come up with to keep the rubber side down.

My new Energica Ego stalled on the 5 this morning.
This is the totally new bike that the dealer gave me to replace the fist Ego I bought, that stalled several times.
Energica was able to replicate the stalling on the first bike, but they were not able to fix it.
The stalling was the same as all the other times. I'm in the HOV lane; I start to accelerate to pass a car and the motor turns off.
I coast to the narrow HOV shoulder. Turn the motor off and on and restart the bike.
The error messages are the same as before:

Unknown error - contact service.
Red triangle on left side of display.
Yellow engine light on right side.

The only difference this time is that the display changed to metric. km and kph. All other settings were unchanged (TC=3, engine braking low, abs on)

I  wear a Garmin Virb 360 on my helmet, so i have a 360 degree video of everything around me. You can see my hands, the dash, the speed I'm going and what happens when the bike stalls. It stalls and all I've done is turn the throttle while traveling between 70 and 80 mph. My thumb doesn't hit anything.

I couldn't be more demoralized. When the bike works, I really enjoy it.
There is something fundamentally wrong with the batch of 2020 Energica Egos that I've had.
I just don't want it any more. I'll buy an electric bike when Kawasaki, Yamaha, or Honda come out with a sports bike. Right now, I just want my money back.

I think this is good  for Energica as well. No doubt they want to figure it out as they have the time, without having to rush the bike back to you.

BTW, did Lawrence pick up your bike and take it to Redwood City? I think he mentioned your bike to me when he came to pick up my SS9, but for a very different reasons. They lost my two extra keys (the master and spare) before I bought the bike, so Energica picked up the bike from my house here in Auburn and took it to their shop in Redwood City so they could change my immobilizer and give me a new set of keys. They also did my 600 mile service --all at no cost to me. They brought the bike back in about a week later, and I got an e-mail about what they did and checked for the 600 mile service (at 883 miles).  I am very happy with their excellent service.

This is my main bike to travel on between my  Reno and Auburn houses. I make one 15 minute charge stop at the summit (right at the middle)  and have juice left over when I get here. A 100 mile trip, exactly.

I too am hooked on electric everything--even my lawnmower is electric.  It's now to the point that I will never buy an ICE anything for the rest of my life.

The SS9 cruise control works so well in the mountains unlike any ICE vehicle. All that wide torque range with no tranny shifting.

-Don-  Auburn, CA
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Hi Don,
I'm not sure who took it back to Redwood city. They transferred my Ohlins shock, and the wiring for my radar detector, onto the new bike.
I did a lot of hard acceleration this morning between 70 and 80 mph, and no stalling. I think this bike will be OK.

The dealership is Mission Motorsports in Irvine, CA. They and Energica did good by me.

Quote from: stephen6 on September 10, 2019, 11:54:34 PM

3. Stalls again on the freeway. I take it to the dealer. They send it back to Redmond, CA and after two weeks I get it back. They replaced the inverter.

4. Stalls while crossing traffic on the freeway, two days after I get it back from the dealer.

I'm taking it back to the dealer again today, for the third time for the same problem. Time to get a new bike.

I wonder if your problem could be something such as corrupted firmware making it look more like a hardware issue  when there is really no hardware problem.

BTW,  many new Triumph Trophys had the exact same symptoms you're describing. After a lot of incorrect guesswork and replaced good parts, the real reason was discovered. The ECM was randomly rebooting which would cause the engine to die. Would always restart and run fine until perhaps the next day or so on the freeway and the engine would die again, and it caused many close calls with death. They believed the reason for the random reboot was the random ignition noise. But the fix was to replace the ECM on every bike with one that was better filtered for noise and that was the real fix.

I assume you mean Redwood City, CA.  My Energica is also there, but for a much  different reason. The master key was lost (by them, before I purchased the bike), so they are changing my immobilizer.

They picked up my bike from Auburn, CA and are also doing my 600 mile service and bringing it back to my house all at no cost to me.  So I have no complaints. The bike is now ready, 600 mile service completed and immobilizer has been replaced, and they are about  to bring it back.

-Don-  Cold Springs Valley, NV

Hi Don,
Yes it's Redwood City. I assume they have looked at all angles to fix the stalling problem, and maybe reflashed the firmware. I think they need to take this bike back and make it a daily driver for one of the mechanics who can make it his mission to find out what is wrong. I can't beta test this every two  weeks.
As far as the stalls all occurring on the 405, all I can say is that is my route to and from work. The guys in Redwood City have been able to replicate the problem, but haven't found the final solution, so I think that rules out the electronic interference. But I am so frustrated I could be convinced that space aliens are interfering with it, because they themselves have evolved into electronic creatures and view my riding on the back of an EV as cruel  .

I do have to add one thing that I like about the Ohlins shock over the stock Bitubo. The Ohlins shock can be adjusted for length, so I can raise it to quicken my steering or lower it to slow my steering. 

I purchased the Ohlins shock option for my 2020 Energica Ego. It's supposed to be adjustable for compression and rebound.
The rebound adjustment is a large plastic ring at the bottom of the shock.
But where is the compression adjustment?
When I turn screw surrounded by a nut at the top of the shock (shown circled below) there is no clicking sound. If I turn the nut, there is no clicking sound. I thought Ohlins adjusters always click. I'm just afraid it's not an adjuster and I'm going to unscrew something that oil will start squirting out.
Can someone confirm that the inner screw shown below is the adjuster even though it doesn't click?